EXPLORER DARES TO ACHIEVE

For Eileen Collins, the White House announcement on Thursday of her appointment as the first woman to command a U.S. space mission was a dream come true, but for the woman beside her, it was a dream unfulfilled. A cheerful Collins, dressed in her blue NASA jumpsuit, paid homage to all of the women aviation pioneers who came before her. But that roster did not include one person who was rebuffed in her efforts to join the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The first lady received a measure of recompense as she stood in the Roosevelt Room to announce the appointment of Collins as the first woman to command a space shuttle.

"When I was 14 or so, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I even wrote to NASA that was before administrator [Daniel) Goldin was in charge _ to find out what I needed to do to prepare myself to see the stars up close. Unfortunately, I got one of those really thin envelopes back, which is never a good sign. NASA thanked me for my interest, but said that women weren't being considered for the job," the first lady said.

"Well," she said with a smile, "times have certainly changed."

Collins, 41, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force who has piloted two shuttles, becomes the first woman to lead a space mission in the 37-year history of U.S. spaceflight.

"Since I was a child, I've dreamed about space," said Collins, flanked by the president and first lady. "I've admired pilots, astronauts, and I've admired explorers of all kinds. And it was only a dream of mine that I would someday be one of them and have these kinds of opportunities."

Collins, a native of New York, will command a December flight of Columbia that will take a high-powered X-ray telescope into space. She and her husband, Pat Youngs, have one daughter.

While the White House and the first lady used the event to cheer Collins' appointment, officials also wanted to use the symbolism to underscore the need for school students, especially girls, to study math and science.

Janice Weinman of the American Association of University Women said Collins' appointment "sends a very special message to the young women of this country. This is a clear representation of where girls can go and what young women can achieve."